Sign Language: Pacific Region

In modern times, the islands of the Pacific are dominated by the sign languages brought by colonial powers, such as American Sign Language (ASL) and Australian Sign Language—these languages are used by vibrant Deaf communities from Malaysia to the American state of Hawaii, and in many of these countries, they are the medium of education for the Deaf. In addition, there is evidence of indigenous sign languages predating these foreign sign languages; fortunately, some indigenous languages remain today, despite their fragile status as minority languages within the landscape of sign languages, which are themselves already minority languages. In these respects, the Pacific is much like the rest of the world. In others, the geography and cultures of the Pacific have shaped unique sign languages and Deaf communities.

In Indonesia, a group of islands in the eastern Pacific, Deaf signers use Indonesian Sign Language, or, in Indonesian, Bahasa Isyarat Indonesia. Rather than a single language, Indonesian Sign Language is a collective name for closely related sign languages and dialects used in the country, all of them believed to be related to Malaysian Sign Language and ASL. The sign languages used in the cities of Jakarta and Yogyakarta, both located on the island of Java, are part of this family of sign languages, though their vocabulary and grammar reflect differences distinct enough to classify them as separate languages. Indonesia has at least one indigenous sign language as well: On the island of Bali, where Indonesian Sign Language is also used, a small village called Bengkala is known to have a much higher instance of hearing conditions than the general population. Here, a sign language called Kata Kolok, Balinese for “deaf talk,” is used by both Deaf and hearing villagers alike, and its prevalence allows Deaf villagers to participate in all aspects of village life. This phenomenon, when a small population with many Deaf people develops a sign language for everybody’s use, is called a “village sign language.” Bengkala has a school in which Kata Kolok is the language of instruction, set up by linguists and community members interested in maintaining the language.

The Philippines, to the north and west of Indonesia, fell under American governance in 1899, and shortly thereafter, ASL was introduced to the educational system. Documents from the Spanish rule of the country, hundreds of years earlier, note that Deaf people were using signs to communicate, and these preexisting sign languages likely influenced ASL. Today, Filipino Deaf refer to their language as Filipino Sign Language and consider it a separate language, although it remains closely related after only 100 years of separation. Like Indonesia, the Philippines has at least one local indigenous sign language, unrelated to the larger national sign language. This village sign language, Samar Sign Language, is used by approximately 20 Deaf people in the village of San Julian, on the east coast of Samar Island, which is located in the central Philippines.

A different situation arose in the Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific, where Rennellese Sign Language was once used on Rennell Island. Unlike the villages of Bengkala and San Julian, this island did not boast a large community of Deaf people—instead, being deaf was nigh unheard of until the birth of a man named Kagobai, in approximately 1915. According to the oral history of the community, Kagobai was the first deaf person born in 24 generations, and a sign language developed to facilitate communication between him and the villages of his community. In 1974, only one fluent signer of Rennellese Sign Language was still alive. As he was elderly at the time, it is unlikely that the language still survives—fortunately, documentation of the language was carried out by Rolf Kuschel, and some record of this unique language remains.

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